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The Minnesota Twins have remained largely quiet thus far through the offseason, but things are starting to heat up and there could be some relatively significant shuffling of the Major League roster. Max Kepler, who has spent his entire professional career with Minnesota, may find himself as one of the dominoes that falls. Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports For years there has been discussion as to whether the Twins may move on from Max Kepler. The German-born outfielder was signed to a five-year contract extension before the 2019 Major League season, and that was coming off a season in which he posted a 97 OPS+. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine had seen enough consistency offensively, albeit to a mediocre level, and a substantial defensive contribution to lock him into a cost-certain deal. Rather than going to arbitration with Kepler, the Twins now knew where they would stand with their blossoming right fielder. He immediately paid off. Kepler was a key cog of the 2019 Bomba Squad that blasted a single-season record amount of home runs. His .855 OPS was a career-high, and his 36 dingers came out of nowhere. In the three years since, he has regressed to the average offensive player, he was previously while still playing Gold Glove defense. With the emergence of corner outfield types such as Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, and Matt Wallner, Minnesota finds themselves at a point where offensive production could be the greater goal. Though the Winter Meetings are over, the front office has been laying the groundwork for a deal. The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman noted that multiple teams have reached out to the Twins regarding their left-handed hitting outfielder. He’s not going to bring back a big piece, especially as the centerpiece of any deal, but the most recent Gleeman and the Geek episode featured a deeper dive into the conversation. Gleeman went on to note that there does seem to be a substantial amount of interest out there. While Kepler’s offensive deficiencies are well documented, he still has plenty of value overall. Given the multiple avenues they could explore, it seemed as though a Kepler deal may get pushed to the back burner from a timing perspective but could be considered more likely than not to happen. On Monday, Joel Sherman reported that the New York Yankees had had conversations with the Twins regarding Kepler. They employed both Joey Gallo and Andrew Benintendi at points last season. They are intrigued by a reunion with the former Royals outfielder, but his price tag could touch $100 million after a strong 2022. Kepler is only owed $8.5 million this season and has a $10 million team option for 2024 or a $1 million buyout. If the Yankees, or anyone else, were more inclined to go with a cheaper option and bet on Kepler providing a bit extra value without the shift, that’s where the intrigue comes in. Minnesota and New York have teamed up for trades previously, and they did send outfielder Aaron Hicks to the Bronx after John Ryan Murphy wowed them with a home run off of closer Glen Perkins. The market for Kepler seems vast, and while we haven’t heard many different teams reported yet, Minnesota is likely keeping options close to the vest until they’re ultimately ready to move him. Nick Nelson recently wrote about the Seattle Mariners being a fit and their general manager Jerry Dipoto loving to make deals. Mitch Haniger is no longer there, and while they did acquire Teoscar Hernandez, Kepler could be a great bridge guy until prospects Jarred Kelenic or Taylor Trammell have proven they’re ready to take over. Playing alongside star centerfielder Julio Rodriguez would give the Mariners a similar defensive pairing to what Minnesota currently has with Byron Buxton in center. No matter who emerges as the favorite to land Minnesota’s fan-favorite, it does seem like this continues to trend more towards a “when” and not “if” situation that Kepler is dealt. View full article

Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor met with the media at Winter Meetings on Wednesday morning, answering questions and sharing his thoughts on what went wrong in 2016 and the recovery ahead. The talk ranged from working with the two new members of the front office, the Jason Castro signing, the Brian Dozier trade rumors and more. If you weren’t a credentialed member of the press or had the opportunity to watch it on the team’s official Facebook page, the people at ASAP Sports has transcribed the conversation in its entirety. Here are some of the notable highlights. You can read the conversation in it's entirely here or watch it at the Minnesota Twins' Facebook page here. Molitor on adding more coaches: "It's been a good process. It's obviously important to me to try to assemble that the best way we can in terms of the right personality, the right knowledge, making sure we have all the areas covered that we need to to run a staff thoroughly. Through the interview process and getting James [Rowson] on board was I thought a really good hire for us and we're kind of getting down to where we're finalizing it. And it's kind of like your player rosters, you try to get good people but then you've got to make it fit as far as making sure everything you want to have covered is covered." On adding a "quality control coach" to the staff: "I don't know how someone came up with that term to describe that. The way I've looked at it and what I've tried to feel around from people in the game and certainly those two guys is that you add someone with very good crossover ability who can, you know, supply a variety of services to try to help. You have your infield guy, your base runner guy but if there is someone with skills to help formulate a game plan in terms of how you want to pitch people, maybe how we want to implement shifts on the defensive side, you know, communication between the majors and the minor leagues throughout the year, there are a lot of things that that could potentially include." On Miguel Sano's offseason: "I haven't talked to him directly. I've been monitoring more what he's been up to through other people in our system, including our training staff. You know, we hear good reports about his focus and you guys heard what he had to say at the end of the year about coming back and things that he wants to do both in terms of being physically prepared as well as trying to undo some of the things that he found were a little bit humbling this year in his second time around. Not to say that there weren't positives. When he first came up two years ago the impact was tremendous. Then not atypical from some of our guys who come through the second time around, there were adjustments made and at times he seemed to be figuring things out and other times a little bit of regression. That's just part of the growth of young players. Still consider him a very high-impact guy on our team and coming in, not having the problem of having to be concerned about playing right field. I have a fairly high level of confidence about his defensive third base of what I think it can turn into. There is still going to be some growing pains there as he settles in and we gotta see how he will respond to potentially playing that position a high number of games. Just a guy you want to try to find a way to keep on the field in some way." On Sano's playing time at third base: "I don't want to get too much in a box there." On how good Byron Buxton can be: "I don't know how to answer that in terms of -- what you see creates the potential in your mind as far as where his talent might take him. I was somewhat jokingly at the end of the year saying I might have misgauged him a little bit in terms of what he could do because I was focused on bunting and putting the ball in play and cutting the swing down and strike outs and then he comes up and hits eight or nine home runs in September." On improving the pitching: "I think that's part of the studying going on. Talking about guys with spin rate and launch angles and figuring out how to pitch better and smarter. I don't think what I did and what my coaches do -- I don't think we're going to try to work any harder, we might try to work a little smarter. And if we can figure out how to do that with better resources and application, that's what we're going to do." Molitor also shared his thoughts on the moves in the American League Central, the increase use of analytics as an organization, retaining pitching coach Neil Allen and a variety of other subjects that are well worth your time to read. Click here to view the article